The Reeve for the R.M. of Dufferin feels the province is making the best of a sticky situation.

George Gray is referring to a proposed budget bill by the Tory Government that seeks to nix a requirement for government to spend one per cent of the PST on local capital projects, including infrastructure, in an effort to chip away at the sky-high provincial debt. The bill doesn't entirely take the money off the table, but rather it would allow government to choose where to spend it. While Gray says the current funding structure has been good for municipalities, he does feel that government's fiscal spending plan is on track.

"I think we all have to take our share of the lumps to try and get this deficit under control. If, in their wisdom, the government feels that this is somewhere that they can cut back then I think we would be wise to support it."

When asked if the R.M. of Dufferin was in a position to take-on added infrastructure costs, Gray added that it's never much fun adding taxes to the roll but feels provincial funding cuts would force municipalities to better prioritize future projects.

"It'll certainly be a burden on some municipalities but there (are) certain decisions that the government moves up the ladder, that they make, that we have to abide by and make the best of a bad situation."

While he hopes government can one day restore its funding of local projects, Gray says cuts are something municipalities are going to have to live with for the time-being.

Mayor Mitchell says funding local capital projects isn't the province's responsibility

Meantime, the Mayor for Carman doesn't think his community would be impacted much if these funding changes were approved.

Bob Mitchell says the amount of provincial funding that Carman got for capital projects wasn't much to begin with. He does add however, the province will still have to run infrastructure programs even if it chooses to spend that one per cent of the PST elsewhere.

"They're going to have to do that, they get funding from the Feds to cover parts of it. I don't see it being a real big problem for us but time will tell."

For years the Association of Manitoba Municipalities lobbied to have that one per cent of the PST designated for local infrastructure and Mitchell suspects the government's plan to redirect those dollars will come up at the AMM fall convention. He says however, that it is his belief that many of the infrastructure problems experienced by municipalities are self-inflicted.

"It's our water system that was never maintained properly, or our sewer systems, or our road systems so it's not necessarily the province's issue because we didn't fund it properly with taxes before."

Mitchell adds the Highway 13 reconstruction project wouldn't be impacted by this funding change because it's a Provincial Highway. Tenders are expected to go out at the end of the month and undergo a ten-day submission process, with plans to start work this fall.